‘ During the past year experiments in poultry feeding have been ‘ 
‘ continued, some feeding experiments with pigs have been made, 
" and tests of selected and of some new varieties of sorghum con-— 
tinued. Owing to the necessity of considerable miscellaneous 
work but little time could be given to the soil experiments. Some 
_ partial results are, however, on record. 
POULTRY. 
__.- Feeding experiments with such an animal as the hen, to whom — 
almost any stray insect or worm is food, are much more difficult — 
of absolute control than those with cattle and swine. While © 
fowls may, for short periods, be kept in very small pens, it is not 
y _possible to keep laying hens, when closely confined for a long 
| time, in anything like a normal condition; for a certain amount of it 
liberty and exercise is for them indispensable to good health. | 
Neither is it possible to form reliable conclusions in regard to 
ege production from observations extending over only a short 
period, for this production is encouraged or interrupted by many | 
influences, and especially by the season of the year. Handling 
and weighing the hens, changing to new quarters or any unusual 
excitement, especially with the more “nervous” breeds, interferes | 
with the usual development of eggs. Neither is the factor of ue 
individuality by any means an unimportant one among hens. i 
During the feeding experiment here reported the fowls were 
given as much room as was possible with a close account of their 
food. 
| In connection with the study of more or less nitrogenous rations — 
| for laying hens, there were fed, during the twelve months ending __ 
November fifteenth, four pens of fowls. Two pens, one of smaller _ 
and one of larger breeds, had throughout the year a nitrogenous - 
* Wm. P. Wheeler. 
